The St. Johns herald., 1887-09-08
GOOD ADVICE TO PARENTS.

Somebody Who Knows Gives Valuable
 Suggestions on the Good Government
 of Boys and Girls.
 It seems as if in this age of civilza- ton that physical punishment ought never to be resorted to. It is not nece5- sary. 4 parent has full control of a child when 1t is young, and should keep it.
 1t can never be done by whipping, for a boy that is punished that way al- ways looks forward to the time when he will be too large to be whipped, and as he grows he has to be whipped lit- tie harder every time, which in 1 self proves that form of punishment to be useless and wrong.
 In any other method of punishing 8 child can be shown that he Is simply en- during the consequences of disobedient act, unless, of course. more injustice is practiced, for children have a fine sense of jus ..co and are not easily dece.ved by Q RIreteEse f it.
 Too much punishment Is as dangerous as too little, 1t is when one has a gllmmer of this idea that he quotes the proverb, "spare the rod," etc., to fortify himself, when the proverb would be Letter forgotten. "Great ds be- token fallen state" The same is true of much punishment.
 The object of all punishment is, of course, to improve child, to trim off, or subdue its faults of character as they appear, and give better chance for all the good qualities to develop. There are ways of punishing besides whipping that will defeat this end, and the whole subject is a matter to be gravely con- sidered by parents of young children.
 It is Q common practice to deprive a child of some anticipated pleasure be- cause Of disobedience. The effect of such punishment depends upon the cir cumstances.
 Suppose, for instance, a boy has a promise that he shall go to a certain circus that is coming in few days, but m occasion arises in which some sort of discipline must be resorted to, and he Is tod he cannot go to the circus.
 In such a case all the antagonism of the boys nature Is aroused. He can see no justice in the punishment. He sub mits becau-e he is obliged to and the only relief he has Is in hating he author tty over him, and no doubt feels a con- tempt for time, for one that can give promise and then take 1t back, All the matters in relation to the coming of the circus, his mates all going, and every thing in connection with It will contin- ually keep his angry feelings uppermost and he will all the time feel the inius- tice of the broken promise instead of repentance for his misdeed.
 Now If, instead, he had been told that he could not go out of the yard again for any pleasure, except the circus, for 0 week, nor have any boys in his own yard to play with him during that time, but must amuse himself as Lest he could alone in consequence of his wrong do- ing, he would many times during the week wish he had behaved himself prop erly and would not have that hateful feeling aroused towards his parents. He would not be made unhappy by his punishment; he would have d chance to think of the matter fairly end w.uld not feel abused and outraged however uncomfortable the restriction became. Instead of feeling angry at 1t he would wish he had not done wrong. 4 child needs all the sunshine it can have to Ge fitted for the storms that come in after life, and if in any doubt whether O pun tshment. in certain eases, is really B Ie- cessity or not, always give the child the benefit of the doubt.
 A happy child will be the mo obe- dient. The docilliy of the slave is not what we want in children. "The camel moves no swifter before the whip, only behind the fute."-[Good Housekeeping.